-- Radiation levels on deserted Rongelap Island near the former U.S. nuclear test site on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific have dropped to levels safe for human habitation, according to a study by a Japanese researcher.
Jun Takada, of Hiroshima University's Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, announced this week that his research in 1999 showed levels of radiation on the island were lower than those in Tokyo and Hiroshima.
Measurements showed the annual level of radiation was around 0.2 millisievert, lower than the maximum of 1 millisievert set by the Stockholm-based International Commission on Radiological Protection, Takada said.
The United States exploded a hydrogen bomb at the atoll on March 1, 1954, 200 km east of Rongelap Island, exposing islanders to high levels of radiation.